Wednesday, 19 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Murder planned by mastermind based in Canada
The police arrested three persons including a woman for sheltering the shooters in the murder case of stone crusher owner Mehal Singh at Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district on Tuesday. The mastermind of the whole plan to kill the victim is allegedly a man named Arijit Kala who is currently in Canada and the authorities are working to seek his extradition. The senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Udham Singh Nagar, Manjunath TC informed in a Press conference in Kashipur on Tuesday that the police have arrested three people- Prabhjot Singh alias Pannu, Sukhdev Singh alias Sevi and Rajwinder Kaur for helping Kala in the conspiracy to execute the murder of the victim on October 13 in Kashipur. He said that Pannu is a right hand man of Arijit Kala who used to manage his work in Kashipur. He said that Kala wanted partnership in the stone crusher business of Mehal Singh and had been consistently pressurising him for it but he refused the offer. Kala and Pannu then decided to set up their own stone crusher business but Mehal Singh was allegedly causing hindrances in the way of them setting up their business due to which, they decided to kill him. He said, “The whole plan was made in Canada by the mastermind Arijit Kala. He and the accused interacted to exchange information using an app. Pannu along with the other two arrested accused called professional shooters to Kashipur as per their planning.” He said that the accused allegedly provided shelter to shooters and helped them escape too. The three accused were nabbed around 2 AM on Tuesday from near Banjari Gate on a tip off from an informer. The SSP said that a pistol of 30 calibre has been recovered from Pannu which is quite an advanced pistol. Such a pistol is not easily available and it is the first time it was used in a crime in Uttarakhand. The police also recovered eight live cartridges of 30 calibre. The SSP said that the police will gather more information after getting Police Custody Remand (PCR) of the arrested co-conspirators. Talking about the arrests of the shooters, he said, “The shooters have been moving from Uttar Pradesh to Punjab and our team is presently working on nabbing them even as I am addressing this Press conference here (on Tuesday). I am certain they too will be nabbed soon by our team.”
Appreciating the efforts of his team to nab the three accused, the SSP said that his team members have not slept for the past four days and worked day and night to solve the case. He said that the police team analysed several pieces of digital evidence, CCTV footage and used manual inputs to get the identity and location of the culprits besides gathering several other pieces of evidence. The DIG of Kumaon range Nilesh Bharne also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for the police team for the major development in the case.
